The Next Generation of Banknotes: 2016 onwards

This section of the Museum presents the next generation of Australian banknotes, and provides insight
into its production, design and security features. Like their predecessors, the new banknotes are
printed on polymer, a type of plastic. They retain key aspects of the previous series—the people
portrayed, colour palette, size and denomination—but incorporate new security features and designs.

Issued from 2016, the banknotes reveal innovations that have been envisaged to enhance the
banknotes’ accessibility and protect them from counterfeiting. A clear top-to-bottom ‘window’
represents a distinctive feature of the banknotes; it includes a number of sophisticated security
features. This generation of banknotes also introduces a tactile feature that can be used by people
who are blind or have low vision to determine the value of their banknotes.

$50 banknote – Australian innovators

The $50 banknote retains the portraits of two of Australia’s social and political pioneers - David
Unaipon and Edith Cowan, who were both featured on the previous banknotes. David Unaipon was an
activist, inventor, musician, preacher and Australia's first published Aboriginal author. Edith
Cowan is best remembered as the first female member of an Australian parliament, elected in 1921.
The work of David Unaipon and Edith Cowan is recognised in several design elements on the banknote,
including shields from Unaipon’s Ngarrindjeri nation and images portraying the practices of miwi and
navel cord exchange about which he wrote. The banknote also includes pictures of the gumnut brooch
Cowan had made to symbolise that entry into Parliament was a ‘tough nut to crack’ for women, and the
King Edward Memorial Hospital, a women’s and maternity hospital that she helped establish. The
banknote’s microprint features excerpts from David Unaipon's book Legendary Tales of the Australian
Aborigines and Edith Cowan's maiden speech to Western Australian parliament.

Each denomination of the next generation of banknotes features a different species of wattle and
native Australian bird. The $50 banknote features the Acacia humifusa and the Black Swan (Cygnus
atratus), Unaipon’s ngaitji, or totem, and the bird of Cowan’s home state of Western Australia.

This banknote was first issued in 2018.

These images show the basic design artwork for the new $50 banknote.

$10 banknote – Australian literary figures

The design of the new $10 banknote celebrates Australia’s literary heritage.

The $10 banknote retains the portraits of two of Australia’s most celebrated writers - Dame Mary
Gilmore and Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson who were both featured on the previous banknotes. The two
portraits derive from drawings based on original photographs. The work of the two writers is
recognised in several design elements on the banknote, including images of a pen nib in two of the
clear windows and excerpts in microprint of Mary Gilmore’s poem No Foe Shall Gather Our
Harvest and
Banjo Paterson’s popular ballad, The Man from Snowy River. Images illustrating the writers’
themes
are featured. A bush hut is shown on the side portraying Gilmore, while a horseman
appears on the side depicting Paterson.

Bramble wattle (Acacia Victoriae) and the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
appear on
the $10 banknote.

This banknote was first issued in 2017.

These images show the basic design artwork for the new $10 banknote.

$5 Banknote - Westminster parliamentary democracy

The design of this banknote represents Australia’s system of Westminster parliamentary democracy.

On one side, the banknote depicts Parliament House, Canberra, denoting the role of parliament. The
forecourt mosaic based on the painting, Possum and Wallaby Dreaming, 1985 by Michael Nelson
Jagamara
is shown, along with an aerial plan view of the building.

On the other side, a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is shown, denoting the role of the
monarch
within the system of constitutional monarchy. Since 1923, Australian banknotes have portrayed the
reigning monarch. Queen Elizabeth II first appeared on an Australian banknote in 1953 when she was
portrayed
on the £1 banknote. A new portrait was commissioned for the $1 banknote, first issued in 1966, and a
third portrait was drawn for the $5 banknote issued in 1992, based on a photograph from 1984. The
portrait of the Queen on the new banknote has been redrawn from the same
photograph. Technological advances mean more detail can be achieved in the design and the portrait
on the new banknote more closely resembles the original photograph.

Other images on the banknote include a representation of Prickly Moses wattle (Acacia
verticillata
subsp. ovoidea) and an Australian native bird – the Eastern Spinebill.

This banknote was first issued in 2016

These images show the basic design artwork for the new $5 banknote.

Security and Design Features

Innovative new security features have been incorporated in the new $10 banknote to help keep them
secure from counterfeiting. These security features are similar to those in the $5 banknote issued
in 2016, such as the top-to-bottom clear window and the patch with a rolling colour effect. Learn
more.

How Are the Banknotes Produced?

Several years of consultation and testing precede the production of the banknotes. Extensive
consultation takes place with designers, technical and subject-matter experts, the cash-handling
industry, representatives of interest groups such as the vision-impaired community, and the public.

The foundation of the banknote is a clear, laminated polymer film, a type of plastic. Printing
plates, special inks and high-technology printing machinery transform this film into a banknote.
Major design elements, such as portraits, are printed by a process called intaglio printing, using
engraved metal plates. The new series of banknotes introduces two innovative security features: foil
elements applied to a clear top-to-bottom window and an optically variable ink that produces a
rolling colour effect.

Major design elements, such as portraits, are printed next by a process called intaglio printing,
using engraved metal plates. The new banknotes also include a tactile feature – small raised dots or
bumps that assist the vision-impaired to identify the value of the banknote’s denomination. At a
final stage, two layers of a protective overcoating or varnish are applied.

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